Girdle structure



Feb. 10, 1959 o. ERTESZEK 2,872,927

GIRDLE STRUCTURE Filed Sept. 19, 1957 as; F/ZM United States Patent GIRDLE STRUCTURE Olga Erteszek, Los Angeles, Calif. Application September 19, 1957, Serial No. 684,887

4 Claims. or. 128-548) V This invention relates to improved girdles of a type particularly adapted for attaining a highly effective support of the wearers body with a garment of verysmall size, and particularly in a manner allowing for maximum freedom of leg movement.

In a girdle, it is of course highly important that the lower edge portion of the back part of the girdle be very positively held against the wearers body, to assure close fitting of the girdle at that location, in a manner attaining the desired smooth contour of the body. To achieve this close fitting at the rear, it has heretofore been thought necessary to design a girdle to extenddownwardly about as far at the front of the wearer as at the rear. However, such extension of the garment'downwardly at the front has resulted in undue restriction of the legs at that location, so that the legs can not move as freely as would be desired.

The general object of the present invention is to provlde a girdle in which full support is provided at the rear, and full support for the stomach is provided at the:

front, but all without any'interference with complete freedom of the legs. Such freedom is attained by forming the girdle body so that its lower edge is much higher in the front of the garment than at the rear, and then providing the garment with elastic reinforcing material which is specially cut and positioned to transmit pulling forces between different levels at the front and back. More specifically, this reinforcing material extends from the front of the girdle rearwardly along its opposite sides, and then at least partially across the back of the garment, and in extending rearwardly the reinforcing material is inclined downwardly. At the front of the garment, the inclined reinforcing material exerts a pull at the stomach level, preferably pulling against a front panel," to thus provide for front support exactly where needed. At the rear, the same reinforcing material pulls inwardly at a lower level, specifically at the bottom of the buttocks, to assure a close fitting at that location. Desirably, the reinforcing material forms two strips at opposite sides of. the girdle, which strips may be of greater vertical extent at the front than at the rear. 'The rear ends of the strips should be spaced apart horizontally at the back of the garment, to provide an unreinforced portion of the girdle at that location which is more readily stretchable than the reinforced areas.

The front panel is preferably of a material having vertical elasticity but which is relatively inelastic horizontally. The rest of the girdle body and the reinforcing material may be both horizontally and vertically elastic.

The above and other features and objects of the present invention will be better understood from the follow ing detailed description of the typical embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 shows a lady wearing a girdle constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side view of pears in use; 1 Fig. 3 is a front view of the girdle;

Fig. 4 is a rear view of the girdle;

Figs. 5 and 6 are enlarged fragmentary sections. taken on lines 5-5 and 6-6 respectively of Fig. 2; and

the girdle as it apgirdle may extend approximately directly horizontally as' it extends about the wearer, while the lower edge 12 of the girdle is so formed as to be considerably higher at the front of the garment than at its rear. More specifically, the lower edge 12 may extend substantially directly horizontally across the rear of the girdle, as seen clearly in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, with edge 12 then advancing progressively upwardly as it extends forwardly along the opposite sides of the girdle and then inwardly at its front. The upward curvature of lower edge 12. may be relatively gradual along the opposite sides of the girdle (see Fig. 2), and may then increase to a more abrupt upward inclination at 13 as the edge 12 advances across the front of the garment to the highest portion 14 of that edge. This peak portion 14 is located at the very center of the side to side extent of the front of the garment. The rear lowest horizontal portion 15 of the lower edge 12 is at a level beneath the buttocks of the wearer, while the forward high portion 14 of edge 12 is at a level which is spaced above the level of lower portion 15 a distance X which may be at least about one-third and preferably approximately one-half of the maximum vertical extent Y of the garment. Thus, the vertical extent Z of the front center portion of the garment should be not greater than about one-half to two-thirds of the vertical extent Y of the rear portion of the garment.

To describe now the various panels from which the girdle 10 is formed, these panels may include a front panel 16 extending across and confining the stomach of the wearer, two opposite side panels 17, a rear panel 18, and two reinforcing sheets of elastic material 19 which are stitched to the inner side of and reinforce panels 17. The front panel 16 is formed of one-way stretch sheet material which is relatively freely elastically stretchable in a vertical direction, but is substantially non-stretchable in a horizontal direction. That is, panel 16 has elastic threads extending vertically, but has substantially non-stretchable threads extending horizontally or from side to side. All of the other panels 17, 18 and 19 are formed of two-way stretch material, which is very freely stretchable both horizontally and vertically. This twoway stretch material of panels 17, 18 and 19 may have its main or largest elastic threads 21 (see Fig. 7) extending substantially directly horizontally about the garment, as indicated by arrows 20 in the different figures, while the smaller or secondary elastic threads 22 of the material of panels 17, 18 and 19 may extend directly vertically. The upper edges of panels 16, 17 and 18 may be turned downwardly at the inner side of the garment, as seen at 23 in Fig. 5, with an elastic band 24 being stitched to the inner side of this downturned upper edge portion 23 of the garment and extending along the entire extent of upper edge 11. This band 24 may be of a.

material which is stretchable horizontally, but not substantially stretchable vertically. Similarly, the panels 16, 17 and 18 may be turned upwardly and inwardly along the lower edge 12 of the garment (as seen at 25 in Fig. 6), with a longitudinally but not transversely stretchable elastic band 26 being stitched to the inner side of the upturned lower edge portions of the panels. As in the case of band 24, a single band 26 extends continuously along the entire circular extent of lower edge 12 of the garment.

The front panel 16 of the garment desirably is of the essentially diamond shaped configuration shown in Fig. 3,

Patented Feb. 10, 1959" having a pair of opposite side edges which, in extending downwardly from upper edgell to lower edge 12 of the garment, first diverge at 27 to points 28 of maximum width, and then converge at- 29 to a reduced Width lower end portion 30 at the location 14. Thus, the panel 16 is of very narrow width at both the upper and lower edges of the garment. The two side panels 17 have forward edges which diverge and then converge in exact correspondence with edges 27-29 of front panel 16, and which are stitched to those diverging and converging edges 2729 along their entire vertical extents between upper and lower edges 11 and 12, as indicated by the stitching at 31 in Figs. 1 to 3. At the rear of the garment the two side panels 17 are stitched to the opposite side edges of the vertically extending rear panel 18 along two generally parallel and generally vertical seams 32 (see Fig. 4) extending the entire height of the rear portion of the garment. Between the forward seams 31 and rear seams 32 the two side panels 17 extend continuously from upper edge-11 of the garment to lower edge 12, and similarly the rear panel 18 extends for the entire height of the garment between edges 11 and 12.

The two reinforcing panels 19 are stitched to the inner sides of the two side panels 17 respectively, and specifically along upper and lower stitching lines 33 and 34. These stitching lines follow the upper and lower edges respectively of the reinforcing panels 19, which panels have a considerably greater vertical extent at the front of the garment than at its rear. At the front of the garment, the reinforcing panels 19 are cut to exactly meet and conform to the first diverging and then converging opposite side edges 27-29 of front panel 16, and the front edges of reinforcing panels 19 are then stitched to panels 17 and 18 by the same stitching 31 that secures the corresponding edges of panel 16 to panels 17. At the rear of the garment, the rearmost edges of reinforcing panels 19 may be stitched to panels 17 and 18 along the same seam lines 32 at which panels 17 are secured to panel 18.

At the front of the garment, the vertical extent of reinforcing panels 19 may be equal to the major portion of the vertical extent of panel 16 and the garment at the front location, and preferably panels 19 extend along almost the entire vertical height of the garment at the front edges of panels 19. As the panels 19 extend rearwardly along the opposite sides of the garment, the panels 19 decrease in vertical extent, and also advance progressively downwardly, to be connected to rear panel 18 at only its lowermost portion. The vertical extent Y of the garment at its rear should be several times as great as the vertical extent A of the rearmost portions of panels 19. As seen best in Figs. 2 and 4, these rearmost portions of panels 19 connect to back panel 18 at the bottom of the buttocks of the wearer, so that panels 19 tend to pull the lower edge 12 of the garment inwardly at that location to tightly conform to the contour of the wearers body. To described somewhat more specifically the configuration of panels 19, the lower edge 34 of each of these panel's meet a corresponding one of the downwardly converging side edges 29 of panel 16 at a point 35 rather near the bottom edge 12 of the garment. From this point, edge 34 extends rather abruptly downwardly and rearwardly, to ultimately coincide with the stitching 36 which secures band 26 to the side panel, and to follow that stitching 36 until the bottom stitching 34 and 36 meet one of the seams 32 at substantially a common point. The upper edge seam 33 of each panel 19 may commence at a point 37 atalmost the upper edge 11 of the garmenhand from that point may extent first rather gradually downwardly at 38 as edge 33 extends toward the side of the garment, following which the edge 33 than curves rather abruptly downwardly at 39, at the side of the garment, and ultimately curves to a lesser inclination as edge 33 approaches one of the seams 32.

In use, the garment allows for very great leg freedom by virtue of the fact that the front center portion of the lower edge 12 of the garment rises to a point 14 which is above the crotch level. At the same time, the unique manner of construction of the garment assures very effective confinement of the wearers body at both the front and rear of the garment. This result is achieved in large part by reason of the provision of reinforcing panels 19, which act at their forward ends to pull front panel 16 tightly against the wearers stomach, and act at their rear ends to pull the back panel 18 and the rest of the rear portion of the garment inwardly against the wearers body at the lower edge of the garment, to thus closely fit the lower portion of the buttocks of the wearer. If desired, this can give an uplift contour at the rear of the garment, as is currently fashionable. It will also be understood that the usual fasteners 41 may be attached to the lower edge 12 of the garment, for securing the wearers stockings to the garment.

I claim:

1. A girdle comprising a girdle body adapted to extend about and confine a wearer's body at the hip location and at least partially formed of elastic material, said girdle body having a forward portion adapted to extend across the front of a wearers stomach, the bottom of said girdle body being defined by a lower edge which extends across the bottom of said forward portion at a relatively high location to allow full leg freedom and which is adapted to extend across the back of the wearer at a lower level to effectively confine the lower portion of the buttocks, said lower edge being inclined downwardly as it extends from the front of the girdle body to the rear, there being elastic reinforcing material attached to and reinforcing said girdle body and forming at each side thereof a strip of material occupying a major extent of the vertical dimension of said front portion of the girdle body and extending from near the top of said front portion downwardly and rearwardly along the sides and then at least partially across the back bottom portion of the girdle body near its lower edge where the reinforcing material occupies a minor extent of the vertical dimension of the girdle body.

2. A girdle as recited in claim 1, in which said front portion of the girdle body is a front panel adapted to extend across and confine the stomach of a wearer, said reinforcing material at the two sides of the girdle body being secured essentially to opposite side edges of the front panel.

3. A girdle as recited in claim 1, in which said front portion of the girdle body is a front panel adapted to extend across and confine the stomach of the wearer, said reinforcing material at the two sides of the girdle body being secured essentially to opposite side edges of the front panel, said front panel being formed of elastic material which is vertically elastic but relatively inelastic horizontally, most of the rest of the girdle body and said reinforcing material being elastic both horizontally and vertically.

4. A girdle as recited in claim 1, in which said reinforcing material at the two sides of the girdle body has rear end portions which extend partially across the back of the girdle and then terminates in two horizontally spaced ends of the material, there being an elastic portion of the girdle body between said ends of the reinforcing material which is more readily stretchable than the girdle body is where it is reinforced by said reinforcing material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,751,506 Bowne Mar. 25, 1930 2,519,611 Thalman Aug. 22, 1950 2,663,871 Erteszek Dec. 29, 1953 2,742,643 Dowd Apr. 24, 1956 2,803,822 Doyle Aug. 27, 1957 

